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August 27th, 2012
Y&R’s New EP Jill Farren Phelps To Cast: “I Come In Peace! Not To Rape And Pillage Y&R!”

Photo Credit: Wenn Photo

The most-honored executive producer of the soap genre, Jill Farren Phelps is coming to The Young and the Restless to shake it up and honor its traditions. In her first interview since the news spread that she has replaced Maria Arena Bell in the position, Jill tackles some hard-hitting question from TV Guide in this exclusive interview including what she plans on fixing in Genoa City, the Christel Khalil situation, fans criticism of her over the years, and what actors will have story and who may stay or go. And yes, she even admits that her decision to kill beloved Maureen Bauer all those years ago during her tenure at Guiding Light, was a mistake! It’s a not to be missed chat, and here are just a few interesting excerpts below! And mark October 12th as the first Phelps on-air episode of Y&R!

Jill on what the mandate is from CBS and Sony with Y&R to her. and if she feels a strong commitment from CBS for the series: “The mandate is to make Y&R financially feasible so it can continue on. And also to bring the show into 2012. We will give it a more contemporary feel, shake up the way it looks and sounds just a bit, though nothing that will have the audience feeling uncomfortable. It would be so wrong to try to pace it and structure it and stylize it like GH. We just want Y&R to be more alluring and compelling as we move into the future. I’m going into Y&R not with a hatchet but with a scalpel in order to make it function as a more economical show. They (CBS) seems to be in it for the long haul and there’s a lot of freedom and comfort in that. It allows us to make our changes gradually and be very careful about the decisions we make. We’re not ripping apart the core of this show, not even to save money. “

Jill on what actors may stay or go, and if the characters that were brought in by Maria Arena Bell, under her tenure, could be the most expendable: “We have a cast of really wonderful actors but, at the end of the day, we need to look at the entire canvas and decide who is catching fire with the audience. And where can we create fire where there isn’t any? We do not have a Maria Bell hit list. But, again, that is not to say that everyone stays. I was not sitting by the phone hoping someone would get fired so I could have this job. The phone call came in, Josh and I said yes, and here we are. It’s our job to make this a better Y&R — not a different Y&R but a better one — and that doesn’t take anything away from the people who were here before. ”

Jill on the buzz that the casting breakdowns that went out for African-American actors were to replace Bryton James (Devon) and Christel Khalil (Lily): “The male role we are casting is definitely a new character but, yes, the female role is a recast for Christel’s role. However, since we sent out that casting breakdown, negotiations with Christel have resumed. I don’t yet know how that’s going to work out.”

Jill on series star, Eric Braeden (Victor) for his going on record that he was upset at the firing of Maria Arena Bell, and if she feel she needed to do damage controL: ” I had a meeting with all of the actors and said to them: “I come in peace. I am not here to rape and pillage Y&R.” And they could not have been warmer or more welcoming. Clearly, Mr. Braeden has been here a long time and he has a tremendous affection for the way things have been. I don’t begrudge him that at all. I’m crazy about him and Melody Thomas Scott[Nikki] and we have great plans for them. Actors don’t get better than that!”

So soapers, what do you think of Jill’s comments? Are you optimistic with the regime change for your favorites in Genoa City? Who do you think should stay and who do you think should be cut loose from the canvas? Let us know your thoughts!

Glad to have you Jill! Do right by my friend Sharon Case the poor girl has been holding this show together all by herself with her grace and talent!!! Phyllis character Jail already enough! Get rid of this Chelsea snooze and for God’s sake bring back VICTORIA ROWELL aka DRUCILLA WINTERS ASAP!!!!!!

Give Sharon Case award and a medal for putting up with this horrific story MAB and Eric B forced on her! Sharon knew it would never be good and she was RIGHT! She did a fantastic job and went through hell for it! That facebook Y&R comment page should have the monitor to step down or be fired that site is toxic and sick with hate and threats from lunatics!

I want her back too. I’m not sure about JFP. But, the same interview she did with TVGuide, she said that she and Genie talked and she is a great actress. GF fans knew that to begin with. But, I find it hard to believe that JFP&Genie are all of the getting along.

Although I didn’t always agree with some of the decisions JFP made while at GH. She is a great producer. She is intune with the industry and doesn’t shy away from bringing new technolody to aid in the story telling. I think Y&R will do good by Jill. GH benefited from her and so will Y&R. It’s all good.

I’m all for giving her a chance. Will she make the show worse than it already is? Possibly, but the old was not working and there was no choice but to replace. I’m hopeful though that things can’t get any worse and that the show has a chance to get back on track again. In fact, I’m even optimistic that she has the capabilities to make some good choices, and with Josh as her headwriter, the show could be intriguing, interesting and must watch again.
I wish her luck.

I’m going to remain cautiously optimistic. I became a viewer of Y&R because of Lane. CK is a very important (and irreplaceable) p/o that pairing.
The soap canvas is made up of diverse personalities; thats what draws in and keeps a diverse viewing audience.

Hiring this loathsome woman is another nail in the coffin of the once great,American original art form -the daytime drama.The storied history of the soap opera genre is,lamentably,becoming a more and more distant memory.

TV Guide Magazine: Exactly. But that’s a subject for a whole other interview, if not a college thesis.

Phelps: Look, I’m sorry I killed Maureen Bauer on Guiding Light all those years ago, but I am not responsible for the death of Frankie Frame on Another World! That was not my doing and I am tired of taking the heat for having killed a character when I didn’t! [Laughs] The other day we were in a network meeting talking about one of the Y&R actors who wanted out temporarily to go do something and I said, “Let her go do it!” And the network executive looked at me and said, “You’re not nearly the monster I’ve been hearing about!”

Max I just looked up the history of Another World Phelps did supposedly try to have then headwriter Maggie Depriest rewrite that but she refused wanting to make the character of Cass Winthrop a rogue again. I will wait and see and hope it improves the cast is way overbloated and we need to send all the young kiids back to boarding school. Let’s get rid of Kyle Eden Summer Fenmore or at least recast Kyle & Eden. Definitely we do not need Summer & Fen.

Right on Max, right there with you on that one! I don’t care if she is going to try and get technical and say it was a writer that refused to make the change. Bottomline she was the EP for Another World, therefore, she could have chosen to override the decision made by headwriter. Let us not forget about Santa Barbara, Guiding Light, and while General Hospital is still on the air, she was the idiot who kept endorsing Brian Frons, the ABC soap killer. No disrespect to the cast & crew of GH, but they won Outstanding Drama Series because of the Luke Intervention storyline, let’s be honest here.

I’m hoping she has learned from her mistakes and am willing to give her a chance but I will be after all the MAB haters if JFP starts mucking with the veteran actors of Y&R. She was the best they could find? Scary thought.

I have never watched GL and neither have I watched Y&R. But I wonder if any mistake made in soaps will ever top the colossal mistake made by Chris Goutman and Jean Passanante in killing off Dr. Reid Oliver on ATWT. The idiots and their senseless plots were responsible for driving a 54 year old legacy into the ground. I hope that horrible duo is never associated with any soap or show unless the intent is suicidal or self-destruction of the soap or show.

As long as Peter Bergman and Michael Muhney (and Melissa Claire Egan since she is an incredible assest and Adam/Chelsea are the only reason I continue to tune in these days lol) stay, I’m totally fine. lol.

I do hope she turns the show around from Maria Arena Bell’s disasterous tenure. Families and characters were destroyed during her reign and I can only hope that Ms. Phelps honors the legacy of Y&R, unlike her predesecor. I do not think she will rape or pillage the cast, I think Christel’s circumstance is unique from the rest of the cast as she admitted she coveted more than they offered, and you never know, that could be resolved. I am going to give Ms. Phelps a chance.

I can NOT take fast forwarding through Melissa Egan aka Chelsea what a bad boring actress! Phyllis aka Michelle Stafford needs to go so over her no one wants her on this show anymore we love Sharon though Sharon is the best!!!

kay/kay replied September 5th, 2012 at 4:30 pm

Hey I thought I was the only one who thought that don’t worry JFP says anyone who is not catching fire is out the door and she does dislike women. Ha!

kelly replied September 7th, 2012 at 7:08 pm

OH NO WAY I ALMOST STOPPED WATCHING BECAUSE OF THIS WAIST OF MY TIME CHELSEA CHARACTER . PHYLLIS I JUST CAN”T BARE IT!!! Like the B&B steff/liam/ hope thing Phyllis is way over used The story ridiculous and she needs to go away for months we need a mental brake from her ! ENOUGH!

The woman (JFP) is not a great EP. She really made GH go down the tubes and Y&R is already horrible. Once was the best of the shows is now the worst as far as I am concerned. People should watch GH which is the best of all the soaps.

This interview makes me feel safe to stand by with JFP as the executive producer as Y&R. She’s going to really help the series become what it should’ve been under Maria’s regime. I have faith that the new Y&R is going to be fantastic!

I find it curious that she’s touting her ability to make wise financial decisions about Y&R, when one of the MAJOR criticisms of her from a managerial standpoint was her constant inability (some said by conscious disregard) to keep GH on or under budget. Maybe working on Hollywood Heights has taught her a thing or two. Frank Valentini is the King of bringing a show in under budget. Does she mean it or is she blowing smoke to please Sony?

We’ve been through this before, wanting a bad EP or writer replaced, and far too often it’s been from the frying pan into the fire. I can’t help but remember what happened to AMC when the bad McTavish was replaced with the utter horror of Chuck Pratt. IF JFP is able to restrain herself and let her writers do their job without her uniformed interference, the show might stand a chance.

Okay! Now I have read the entire TV Guide interview. She, of course, has great things to say, but is also very coy about some things. I hope she means what she says about getting story for Victor, Nikki, Neil, and Jill (hopefully with Tristan Rogers). Apparently JFP and Genie Francis have made peace.

Now what it her fascination with James Franco? Why doesn’t she just pay him to be her pool boy or something and be done with it? He is a good actor, but he doesn’t do much for soaps .. or his own career. In fact, back when he did the movie SONNY he had a really promising movie career and now you never hear about him unless it has to do with soaps. There are enough soap actors who have been around forever and are great at the genre that we don’t need has-been movie stars. It’s a shame.

We should also look out because he has a younger brother. I’m sure she would gladly find a spot for him too.

I have faith that Y&R will survive, and I hope for the best for the whole team! I believe that Lily and Cane would have new, different strories if Y&R brought on a few friends, family members, co-workers, etc. that are their age. A lot of the characters that are my age (Lily’s age too) have left, like J.T., Brittany, MacKenzie, etc. Teenagers will be good for the show, too, but please don’t give them much more air-time than everyone else from Victor, Nikki, Jack and Katherine to the new children and babies. To be honest, for me, it would be nice for Lily and Cane to not have to worry about his mother right now. Maybe they can find a way to have a sort of different, closer relationship with her.
Make it a great day! <3

I agree with Mrs. Farren’s comments, that she intends to come in peace, not destroy or pillage “The Young & The Restless”. And as for those who can stay or go? I don’t know…..word has it that there will be recasts of a few young characters. The rest can stay……that’s all I can be assured about.:)

Time will tell. I am skeptical given all the BS soap fans have endured the last few years. Hopeful for the show, the cast and its fans that this regime turns things around and Y&R lives on for many years to come.

It’s entirely possible for someone to learn from his/her mistakes and improve.

But in this case, I highly doubt it.

She is unquestionably very talented at some aspects of the job, but she’s hellish at others, and her trail of destruction across prior soaps speaks for itself.

I’m sure she doesn’t intend to “rape and pillage” Y&R. But I’m equally sure she didn’t intend to rape and pillage Santa Barbara, Guiding Light, Another World, and General Hospital–and yet that’s exactly what she did at each show. I’d have more confidence if I thought she really understood the mistakes she’s made–and they go far beyond killing off Maureen Bauer.

Guiding Light was on fire most of the time she was there, though she did make huge mistakes like letting Beverlee McKinsey go and killing off the anchor of the show, Maureen Bauer. The show never fully recovered after those losses.

And Another World was really good when she was on there, I remember the show being really interesting then and the ratings were a lot better, especially in the demos.

I have never really watched GH but I don’t think she did very well on there from what I have read from the media and fans. I know she won a lot of Emmys but it seems that’s mostly from having huge events every year to submit.

I don’t know much about Phelps. However, MAB really had to go. I am just thankful that the duo who killed ATWT, Chris Goutman and “alleged” writer Jean Passanante, aren’t anywhere near this show. This couple butchered ATWT while continuing to think they were doing great work with it.

OK, so I read the entire interview, and I, for one, am going to give JFP a chance.

Soap viewers are probably the MOST unforgiving people on the planet, but who hasn’t made mistakes…and learned from them? I’m willing to give Jill the benefit of the doubt and hope that she’s true to her word. If she’s not, well, she tried, Sony tried, others tried to make this soap better. And it surely did/does need all the help it can get.

Oh for sure there has been too much Phyllis I liked her with Jack but surely not with Nick. Also, I like Sharon as a boss but PLEASE don’t make her a klepto and desperate and jumping to Adam every other day. I still have hope for her and Nick since that time in Paris was so very very romantic. Howvever, Nick acting like a flaky nasty heartless jerk over and over to Sharon does make it harder to think of him as romantic. I really like Adam with Chelsea although it is getting a little too syrupy. Put Vic with Nikki and let it alone. They are getting a little too mature to be so unstable. I really liked Cain when he first came as a rogue especially with Amber but he is boring with Lily. Lily is more suited to Daniel. Daniel needs to cut his hair!!!!!! I really really like the story line where Phyllis pays for her many crimes, however, it seems that she will be teflon yet again. but it is the most excited that I have been to watch YR in a while. I have been watching for 21 yrs.

Is the daytime world so devoid of new talent that they keep hiring the same people to wreck these shows? Sheesh, it’s as incestuous as The Bold and the Beautiful! (not that I wouldn’t LOVE to see Erika Slezak or Robin Strasser on BB, these are talents that never go out of style).

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The Young and the Restless is gearing up for its 45th anniversary the week of March 26th, with this blast from the past look featuring several of former cast members who are making a return. Check it out below via these retro clips, and let us know who you are looking forward to seeing back in GC? Leave a comment »